A news release from the #Canadian Space Agency says this will be Kutryk’s first space mission.

During his mission, the Canadian Space Agency says he will conduct several international and Canadian science experiments, many focusing on health-related research and space station maintenance and operations activities.

#Kutryk is expected to launch no earlier than mid-September 2026 from Florida, along with #NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov.

NASA says the flight is the 13th crew rotation with SpaceX to the space station as part of its Commercial Crew Program.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen returned from a 10-day lunar flyby mission earlier this month.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press

Hybridizing #nuclear command, control and communications systems puts space infrastructure at risk. Space based nuclear command, control and communications (#NC3) systems were developed as highly classified and sovereign systems, insulated from external influence and designed to survive in the most extreme circumstances. Constructed in the 1960s, the systems made sure that states were able to reliably identify and retaliate against threats, maintaining deterrence stability.

#WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded contracts to data analytics firms Leidos and MapLarge to support what the military calls battle management and command and control — the process of understanding what is happening in orbit, deciding what it means and directing a response.

Blue Origin launches rocket with used booster for first time. Blue Origin, the U.S. space company of #Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, on Sunday successfully reused and recovered a booster for its New Glenn rocket, confirming its mastery of a technical feat that could boost its launch cadence and expand its rivalry with SpaceX.

But the uncrewed mission also suffered a partial setback: the satellite carried into space by the rocket did not settle into the right orbit.

The company has launched the New Glenn twice before, but only with new rocket boosters. It has previously launched its smaller New Shepard rocket, primarily used for suborbital space tourism, with reused components in a less technically challenging operation.

The novel recycling approach comes amid fierce competition between Bezos’s firm and fellow tech titan Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has also recovered a booster from a launched rocket.

The New Glenn rocket, standing at 98 meters (321 feet) tall, lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral with its reused booster at about 7:25 a.m. (11:25 GMT) carrying a communications satellite for the company AST SpaceMobile.

After liftoff, the rocket’s two stages separated, with the upper stage continuing its journey carrying the satellite into space. Its booster successfully landed on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean about nine minutes and 30 seconds after takeoff.

Blue Origin said later in a statement on X that the satellite turned on properly but was placed in “an off-nominal orbit.” The gravity of this error was not immediately known. The company said it was assessing the mishap.

In November, Blue Origin recovered a New Glenn booster for the first time, succeeding in the complex technical challenge that culminated with a controlled vertical landing on a floating platform.

A previous attempt in January 2025 to recover the booster was unsuccessful after its engines failed to reignite during descent.

The booster used in Sunday’s launch was refurbished after its previous flight. For this first reuse, the company replaced all of its engines and made several other modifications.

The New Glenn is at the heart of Bezos’s space ambitions as he competes with Musk in NASA’s Artemis lunar program, with their companies both developing lunar landers for the US space agency.

The United States is doubling down on efforts to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon in 2028, before the end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term and a deadline set by Chinese rivals.

Space Force reorg signals end of SDA as standalone agency . Officials say the Space Development Agency’s ‘go fast’ model will live on under new portfolio-based organization

Canadian astronaut and Artemis II crew return to Houston.

#HOUSTON — Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen and his crew members received a standing ovation as they were welcomed back in Houston after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, concluding the Artemis II mission.

Hansen expressed gratitude for his family, NASA, and the Canadian Space Agency. He said in French: ‘’I’m excited to come back to Canada with Reid, Christina, and Victor.’’

Still marvelling over their record-breaking lunar fly-around, the crew of four flew to Houston’s Ellington Field from San Diego on Saturday afternoon.

After a quick reunion with their families, the astronauts took the stage, surrounded by hundreds who took part in NASA’s historic lunar comeback.

“What you saw was a group of people who love contributing,” said Hansen, speaking on the level of commitment of the Artemis II crew.

Canadian Space Agency president Lisa Campbell hugged all four astronauts before she expressed how proud she was of Hansen and his crew members.

“You’ve represented the very best of what it represents to be Canadian,” she said about Hansen.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center director, Vanessa Wyche, said that beyond the data, the mission highlighted the connection between humans.

As the four astronauts stood side by side, linked arm in arm, Hansen said, “When you look up here, we are a mirror reflecting you, this is you.”

“It’s a special thing to be a human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth,” said Commander Reid Wiseman.

“The start and the end were human moments on Earth,” said American astronaut Christina Koch. She spoke briefly about understanding new levels of the word “crew,” concluding by saying, “Planet Earth, you are a crew.”

The crew accomplished many milestones on their 10-day mission, surpassing the Apollo 13 record for farthest crewed space flight from Earth and observing the lunar surface like never before.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2026.

--with files from the Associated Press

The astronauts. Their ride around the Moon.

The Artemis II astronauts pose for a group photo after viewing their Orion spacecraft — which they named Integrity — in the well deck of USS John P. Murtha following their splashdown.

#WASHINGTON — The first human mission beyond Earth orbit in more than 50 years successfully concluded with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean April 10.

The Orion spacecraft Integrity splashed down in the Pacific southwest of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. Eastern, ending the Artemis 2 mission. #NASA reported the four astronauts on board — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — were in good condition as recovery crews worked to extract them from the capsule and take them by helicopter to a U.S. Navy ship, the USS John P. Murtha.

“What a journey,” Wiseman, Artemis 2 commander, said moments after splashdown. He reported four “green” crewmembers, meaning all were in good shape.

The splashdown capped a rapid-fire series of events in the mission’s final hour as the spacecraft returned to Earth. The Orion service module separated from the crew module at 7:33 p.m. Eastern. Four minutes later, the crew module performed an 18-second “raise burn” to align the capsule for reentry.

Reentry officially began at 7:53 p.m. Eastern when the spacecraft reached the “entry interface” altitude of 121.9 kilometers. It was around this time that the spacecraft reached its peak speed of 39,688 kilometers per hour.

Plasma from the reentry triggered a planned communications blackout lasting about six minutes as the spacecraft descended into the atmosphere and slowed down. Two drogue parachutes deployed at 8:03 p.m. Eastern at an altitude of 6,700 meters, followed a minute later by three main parachutes at an altitude of 1,800 meters.

The reentry was closely watched because of issues with the same heat shield design on the Artemis 1 mission in 2022. The shield suffered more erosion than expected, which an investigation linked to heat buildup in Avcoat material that created gases that, in turn, caused cracks. NASA modified the heat shield design for Artemis 3 and beyond, but modified the reentry trajectory for Artemis 2 to limit that heat buildup as temperatures reached up to 2,760 degrees Celsius.

“I’ve actually been thinking about entry since April 3, 2023,” said Glover in an April 8 press conference, referring to the day the crew was announced. “Riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound.”

Relay race

The splashdown concluded an Artemis 2 mission that lasted more than nine days, starting with an April 1 launch on a Space Launch System rocket from the Kennedy Space Center. After spending a day in a highly elliptical Earth orbit, Orion fired its main engine to place the spacecraft on a free-return trajectory around the moon, making the astronauts on board the first to travel beyond Earth orbit since Apollo 17’s lunar landing mission in December 1972.

Orion made its closest approach to the moon April 6, passing 6,545 kilometers above the lunar surface. It also set a new record for the most distant crewed mission, flying 406,771 kilometers from Earth. By splashdown, the mission had traveled 1,117,659 kilometers.

Artemis 2 was primarily a test flight of the Orion spacecraft, which carried humans for the first time after two uncrewed test flights. Astronauts spent the mission testing capabilities ranging from Orion’s manual control to various elements of its life support system.

Orion passed most of those tests, with NASA reporting only a few issues with the spacecraft. That included a wastewater vent line that became clogged, limiting the ability to empty a urine tank for the spacecraft’s toilet.

NASA also reported leaks in valves used to pressurize propellant tanks in the spacecraft’s service module. While that did not impair the ability of Orion to perform minor maneuvers on its way to and from the moon, NASA officials said April 9 they will likely need to redesign that system before the next Orion mission to the moon, Artemis 4 in 2028.

“We have loved living in Orion,” Koch said at the April 8 press conference, despite the cramped conditions that often have them bumping into one another or discussing how to best position themselves to carry out their work. “Everything we do in here is a four-person activity, but it’s also a lot of fun.”

The astronauts’ insights as well as engineering data will feed into future missions. The next mission, Artemis 3, is scheduled for launch by mid-2027. It will remain in low Earth orbit, with astronauts testing the ability to rendezvous and dock with lunar lander prototypes being developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX. Artemis 4, the first crewed lunar landing attempt, will follow as soon as early 2028, with Artemis 5 to follow as early as late 2028.

Koch said the team has worked to identify and update things that have not worked quite right during the mission, keeping those future crews in mind. “We’ve really just worked to make sure that they are set up for success.”

“This is a relay race,” Koch said. “In fact, we have batons that we bought to symbolize physically that, and we plan to hand them to the next crew. Every single thing we do is with them in mind.”

Welcome home, #ArtemisII crew! A successful and historic lunar flyby! Canadian CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen returns to Earth alongside NASA Reid Wiseman, NASA Christina Koch and NASA Victor Glover. Send your welcome‑back messages below! 🚀⬇️

After a journey of more than 690,000 miles, the crew is nearly home.

The #Artemis II crew will splash down off the coast of San Diego later today and, though it won’t be visible from land, you can still wave in their general direction to welcome them back to Earth! 👋